McGraw-Hill Education Partners With University of Minnesota To Launch Institution-Wide Program That Scales e-Books

NEW YORK, May 11, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ --As universities and educational publishers grapple with the challenge of driving acceptance and adoption of e-books on college campuses, McGraw-Hill Higher Education has come one step closer to reaching the e-book tipping point through a new partnership with the University of Minnesota Bookstores. The partnership allows the company to provide e-books to large numbers of students at reduced prices, helping to make college more affordable and improve student performance.

Through this two-year partnership, McGraw-Hill Education will provide its complete catalog of e-books and adaptive learning products to University of Minnesota students at a significantly discounted rate. In this new business model, the bookstore – which has access to enrollment information and the course materials assigned for each course at the university – will identify the digital materials each instructor requires for their classes and then directly bill students' bursar accounts for those materials. The end result is that students will see significant savings and will have automatic and immediate digital access to their course content through their college's learning management system on any browser-enabled device.

"For the last several years, the higher education industry has been trying to figure out how to make e-books scalable and more widely affordable at the university level, particularly as the penetration of tablets and e-readers has increased," said Tom Malek, vice president of Learning Solutions, McGraw-Hill Higher Education. "We've worked to develop dramatically different models for selling college e-books. What we've learned is that making e-books scalable requires the vision and commitment of, and collaboration with, university administration and university bookstores – like our great partner, the University of Minnesota – to develop customized volume-pricing agreements for all students, which increases affordability."

The University of Minnesota, which enrolls nearly 65,000 students, participated in an earlier e-book pilot program with McGraw-Hill Education, Internet2 and Courseload that also was designed to make e-books more affordable and accessible. This new partnership strengthens McGraw-Hill Education's relationship with the university as well as the University of Minnesota Bookstores, which provides significant value in its ability to interface seamlessly with university administration, faculty and students.

"As McGraw-Hill Education evolves its e-book business model, so are we evolving," said Bob Crabb, director of University of Minnesota Bookstores. "We are pleased to partner with McGraw-Hill for this first-of-its-kind program. We view this as a strong opportunity to increase e-book usage on campus while keeping costs down for students. It's also an opportunity for us to expand our traditional retail model and begin to move toward a service bureau model."

According to Malek, scalability also requires moving the conversation beyond the e-book. "Many of our customers have told us they have been waiting for more meaningful digital learning tools to help drive their migration to digital. In many course areas our e-book content can be connected to highly sophisticated adaptive learning and assessment technologies that are known to improve student performance. These new technologies are helping our university partners better understand the value of models that help establish an effective digital learning environment."

At the University of Minnesota, McGraw-Hill's e-books can interface with an entire suite of the company's online learning platforms, including McGraw-Hill Connect® (all-digital teaching and learning platform), McGraw-Hill LearnSmart™ (online super adaptive study tool) and Tegrity® (a fully searchable lecture capture service). LearnSmart, which has been used by nearly 1 million students since its launch, has been shown to improve students' course performance by one full letter grade.

"At the University of Minnesota, we are committed to developing programs and partnerships that improve affordability and academic excellence," said University of Minnesota Provost Karen Hanson. "McGraw-Hill Education's partnership with the University of Minnesota Bookstores enables us to do just that. Not only will our students receive texts at a lower price, but there is great benefit for students and faculty in having their classes literally all on the same page, using the same book and having anytime, anywhere access to it."

The new e-book program will begin in the fall 2012 semester.

About McGraw-Hill Education

McGraw-Hill Education is a content, software and services-based education company that draws on its more than 100 years of educational expertise to offer solutions, which improve learning outcomes around the world. McGraw-Hill is the adaptive education technology leader with the vision for creating a highly personalized learning experience that prepares students of all ages for the world that awaits. The company has offices across North America, India, China, Europe, the Middle East and South America, and makes its learning solutions available in more than 65 languages. For additional information, visit www.mheducation.com.